The prior art of masonry wall construction presents numerous problems that the present invention addresses. Specifically; the prior art is labor intensive with the requirement of skilled labor. The structure formed is rigid, unable to be easily nailed to or cut with common tools, is uninsulated and unfinished, usually requiring another wood frame structure to be built inside of the masonry structure.
There are newer "insulating" masonry block systems that employ both mortar bonding and dry stacked surface bonding methods. These address the insulation issue, though not fully. Some incorporate air cavities that are too wide to provide good insulating value without inserting other insulating material. These cavities are wide enough to establish a convection current inside the block which transfers the heat almost as fast as though there were no cavity. Also the issues of nailability, cutability, and skilled labor intensive assembly are not addressed.
Other "insulating" non-masonry blocks propose the use of wood fiber materials such as sawdust bound with thermosetting and thermoplastic resin. A cost analysis will reveal that this proposition is cost prohibitive. Also some of these blocks fail to provide any passage for plumbing or electrical component installation. Also no provision is made for fire resistance or fire proofing.
Prior art wood frame construction is also labor intensive and provides little fire resistance.
A nearly lost art in today's building code intensive environment is that of adobe construction, which incorporates a relatively weak and moisture sensitive mud or clay block wall stuccoed on both sides for strength and protection against water. This construction relies on the spreading of the imposed load across a large area of wall section in order to achieve the required strength. A similar system comprised of building blocks of the present invention, which are not as strong as masonry blocks, would be sufficient to meet today's building codes as long as areas of concentrated imposed loads are reinforced as proposed later.